What type of bin do you have? I am also a beginner since this Spring. I have mine in the house because we live in NY and it would freeze outside, I have a Worm Factory. I think that you need to be even more careful what you add to the bin If you do keep yours inside your home.
Make sure that you put cardboard over the food so that you won't get flies laying eggs on the food. I read somewhere that flies won't lay eggs on paper. I had a little problem with flies during the summer, I also put up fly paper near the bin and that caught some flies. A well balanced bin should have an earthy scent.
Good luck, Terry

Keeping in bin in the kitchen or elsewhere in your living space definitely gives you less of a margin for error where stink or fruit flies are concerned. But there are a lot of people who do it successfully.
You might want to go to www.vermicomposters.com. There is a group there for people who compost indoors.
mbetts

Congraulations on joining the world of worms! You'll love it!

I personally prefer having my bins indoors. Right now, I have no choice, since I live in an apartment, and have 4 working Rubbermaid bins. I lived in a house previously and had my bins in the basement.

With bins indoors temperatures are never a problem, nor having any undesirable critters in your bin.

I freeze ALL my food prior to feeding. This eliminates any fruit-flies and it's broken down for quicker eating. I have NO smell whatsoever with my bins, and even hubby is impressed.

Sherry

The idea of freezing is interesting. Do you put it in your bin right out of the freezer? The smell will definitely be an issue for the other two people that live in my house so I really want this to be successful! It took a little convincing to get here!
Thanks for all the tips though! I'm very excited!

Hi Veggiepants,
I chop my food scraps into smaller chunks and put in a 1 lb plastic container that you buy mixed greens, baby spinach etc in, in the frig. When it's full I put into bags for the freezer. Freeze for as long as you can before feeding. (a week).

Take out and thaw in a colander so all the liquid drains. THEN I put it into a Folgers container for a day to come to room temperature and break down even more. Then I feed to the lads.

Very easy to do, and the worms love their food.

BTW I keep my bins in the spare bedroom and hubby does his ironing in there. He came out one day and said "If anyone is ever concerned with the smell or they're worried about getting worms, tell them there is no smell, no noise, no hassle at all with keeping worms." So he's real cool with my hobby....long as he doesn't have to see one.

Sherry

I'm with jasdip. I keep a bin (half the height of a standard rubbermaid) under my bed and another in the useless square created by 2 couches against the walls of a corner. I also freeze and then thaw the food - fruit flies are a BIG problem here in Hawaii even if you don't have a worm bin. I haven't had problems since I started freezing, but don't understand the reason for freezing it any longer than enough to freeze the stuff through. Why 1 week or more?

Hi Susan,
I guess a week is a little excessive. Sorry. I do keep it all in the freezer for a few days though. Really, I have so much food for the lads, it's all in the freezer for weeks anyway.